2 Turkish Nationalism: From Gallipoli to Contemporary Neo-Ottomanism

Turkish nationalism has gone through tremendous changes in the last century. While it was first expressed in the Young Turk revolution of 1908 and was important during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, it reached its first height during and after the Turkish War of Independence, when Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk, became the incarnation of the Turkish nation. His rise to become the nation’s strong man actually began with one decisive battle during the First World War, namely the battle for the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles. Although the main focus of research related to the centennial of the First World War is still directed on the campaigns in Europe, in particular the Western Front, “the Gallipoli operations are the most famous and well-remembered today.” The memory of the events related to the Gallipoli campaign has played an important role in Britain, as well as in Australia, where discussions about the reasons for its failure and the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) myth, respectively, were at the center of commemorative events. However, the victory at Gallipoli was as important for the Turkish memory as the defeat and shared suffering were for the Australian identity. Ulrichsen emphasizes the role Gallipolirelated memories have played for the Australian and Turkish nations since the end